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Counting Small Induced Subgraphs with Hereditary Properties

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posted on 2023-11-29, 18:21 authored by Jacob FockeJacob Focke, Marc Roth
We study the computational complexity of the problem #IndSub(\Phi) of counting k-vertex induced subgraphs of a graph G that satisfy a graph property \Phi. Our main result establishes an exhaustive and explicit classification for all hereditary properties, including tight conditional lower bounds under the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH): - If a hereditary property \Phi is true for all graphs, or if it is true only for finitely many graphs, then #IndSub(\Phi) is solvable in polynomial time. - Otherwise, #IndSub(\Phi) is #W[1]-complete when parameterised by k, and, assuming ETH, it cannot be solved in time f(k)*|G|^{o(k)} for any function f. This classification features a wide range of properties for which the corresponding detection problem (as classified by Khot and Raman [TCS 02]) is tractable but counting is hard. Moreover, even for properties which are already intractable in their decision version, our results yield significantly stronger lower bounds for the counting problem. As additional result, we also present an exhaustive and explicit parameterised complexity classification for all properties that are invariant under homomorphic equivalence. By covering one of the most natural and general notions of closure, namely, closure under vertex-deletion (hereditary), we generalise some of the earlier results on this problem. For instance, our results fully subsume and strengthen the existing classification of #IndSub(\Phi) for monotone (subgraph-closed) properties due to Roth, Schmitt, and Wellnitz [FOCS 20].

History

Preferred Citation

Jacob Focke and Marc Roth. Counting Small Induced Subgraphs with Hereditary Properties. In: ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC). 2022.

Primary Research Area

  • Algorithmic Foundations and Cryptography

Name of Conference

ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC)

Legacy Posted Date

2022-07-26

Open Access Type

  • Green

BibTeX

@inproceedings{cispa_all_3739, title = "Counting Small Induced Subgraphs with Hereditary Properties", author = "Focke, Jacob and Roth, Marc", booktitle="{ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC)}", year="2022", }

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